Image source, Reuters

Donald Trump begins his speech by thanking "the great people of Iowa".

He says "it would be so nice if we could come together and straighten up the problems of the world".

"It's going to happen soon," he adds to cheers.

The former president, flanked by his sons Eric and Donald Jr, says with a laugh that he wants to "congratulate Ron and Nikki for having a good time together", and Vivek for doing "a hell of a job".

Trump takes a moment to share his appreciation for his wife Melania, who does not appear to be in Iowa. He then looks up at the heavens and sends his best to her mother, Amalija Knavs, who died last week.

Image source, Reuters

Donald Trump is taking the stage at his Des Moines watch party to address his big projected win tonight.

"God Bless the USA" is blaring over the speakers as he takes in the cheering crowd.

You can watch a live stream of his speech by clicking the play button at the top of this page.

It's getting loud in Donald Trump's watch party and we are expecting he might take to the stage soon to give a speech.

The former president recently reacted to his projected victory in Iowa on social media.

"THANK YOU IOWA, I LOVE YOU ALL!!! DONALD J. TRUMP" the post on his Truth Social platform reads.

Holly Honderich
Reporting from Des Moines, Iowa

Image source, Getty Images

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis are still in a battle for second place.

With Donald Trump quickly getting projected as the winner in Iowa, this is the best result Team Haley could expect. But you wouldn't know it from where I sit inside the Haley watch party in West Des Moines.

So far the mood is fairly sedate. Press and campaign aides are milling around, far outnumbering any voters.

And the campaign itself is staying quiet, giving a firm "no comment" to the projected results.

The Haley campaign has kept expectations low for Iowa from the start, and it looks like they're sticking to that strategy even on election night.

Holly Honderich
Reporting from Des Moines, Iowa

A big part of DeSantis's gameplan are his "precinct captains". They are at every caucus and are the people who stand up in front of their neighbours on caucus night to try and convince them to vote for their candidate.

At the Grant Ragan Elementary School in Waukee, that person was Kyle Brock.

Just before he got up to speak, Brock told me he's been team DeSantis since the summer.

"I like his integrity, and the way he presents himself and - really - what he got done in Florida," he said. "That’s what got my attention."

Brock also thinks it's time to move on from Donald Trump - though according to early projections, he's in the minority of Republicans who feel that way.

Anthony Zurcher
North America correspondent in Des Moines

Some of Donald Trump's more prominent - and vocal - supporters are making their way into the hall where his event is taking place this evening.

Former candidate for Arizona governor, Kari Lake, and Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz have just walked out to a smattering of applause from the crowd here.

Image source, Reuters

Projections may say that Donald Trump will win handily in Iowa, but we can still expect a long night ahead.

The race for second is tight, which means we will have to wait quite a while to find out whether Nikki Haley or Ron DeSantis nabs that particular narrative momentum.

As we pass 21:15 local time in Iowa, about one-third of total votes cast have now been counted.

With less than 40% of the vote in so far, DeSantis has a slight edge on Haley at the moment. We'll see whether that changes as the night goes on.

Mike Wendling
Reporting from Davenport, Iowa

Vote counts are still filtering in but the DeSantis campaign is already crying foul.

"Absolutely outrageous that the media would participate in election interference by calling the race before tens of thousands of Iowans even had a chance to vote," DeSantis spokesperson Andrew Romeo wrote on X.

“Election interference” is a common refrain among Republicans - but usually the loudest such shouts come from Trump himself. The former president has alleged the criminal charges against him are politically motivated attacks designed to keep him out of the White House.

I’ve heard these sentiments from many hardcore Trump supporters, both here in Iowa and all around the country. They simply don’t trust the legal system or the media - not to mention government officials and the voting system.

But major news organisations make projections based on historical voting patterns, statistics and entrance polling of caucus goers.

And the idea of the media being biased for Trump is the exact opposite of what all the main candidates – including DeSantis - have regularly alleged in the past.

Trump's Iowa efforts show a remarkable turnaroundpublished at 03:03 Greenwich Mean Time 16 January

03:03 GMT 16 January

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent in Des Moines, Iowa

Two years, 22 months and 25 days ago, Donald Trump ended his first presidential term under a cloud of controversy, his campaign to challenge the 2020 election result culminating in the January 6 Capitol riot.

As the projected winner of the Iowa caucuses, Trump has taken the first significant step towards - once again - becoming the Republican Party's nominee in November's presidential election.

But the former president still has work to do to become the Republican standard-bearer.

He will face a more formidable challenge from Nikki Haley in New Hampshire, where polls show his once dominating lead has been whittled to near single digits.

But he is still the overwhelming favourite in the race, endorsed in his first test here in Iowa by actual Republican voters, despite all the drama - legal and political - around his campaign.

Read more early Iowa takeaways here.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from Des Moines

Other than the statement of outrage that we reported earlier from the DeSantis campaign, his team has remained entirely silent.

I'm currently at the DeSantis caucus watch party in West Des Moines.

I would say there are about 60 people here so far. The vast majority in the room are reporters, although a small trickle of supporters are starting to file through the door. Country music and classic rock is blasting from a set of enormous speakers in the room.

If the previous statement is any indication, we are likely to hear an angry statement from campaign staff and DeSantis himself about the early projections of a Trump victory.

Privately, campaign staff have expressed irritation at how quickly the projection came. One volunteer told me that it's "insane".

CBS entrance polls suggest Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis are locked in a close race for second place.

For voters who were searching mainly for a candidate who shares their values, Trump won - but DeSantis also had some success.

For the smaller proportion of voters who were looking for someone with the right temperament, Haley performed the best of the top three candidates by far.

Voters looking for a candidate who can beat Joe Biden in November, meanwhile, were split between Haley and Trump.

Image source, Getty Images

Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives, appears to be the first major party leader to publicly congratulate Donald Trump on his projected victory in Iowa tonight.

Republican voters "turned out amid harsh conditions and showed their resolve to bring an end to the failed economic and open border policies of President Biden", Johnson says in a statement.

"Tonight's vote was an endorsement of President Trump's extraordinary record and his ongoing vision to fix our economy, secure our border, and defend the freedoms and values that make America great," the Louisiana congressman adds.

He says, with Trump as the candidate, House Republicans would be ready to "move our Party closer to uniting so we can achieve the ultimate victory in November".

Missouri Congressman Jason Smith is in Iowa tonight, in a show of support for Donald Trump.

Smith, who leads the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, was asked by the BBC's Gary O'Donoghue before results came in to predict Trump's eventual running mate if he wins the nomination.

Trump last week hinted he had decided on who he will run with - and Smith said he thinks it is down to two governors - South Dakota's Kristi Noem and Arkansas's Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

As we wait to find out the full results for each candidate in Iowa, Ron DeSantis's campaign team is angry with the media for making an early projection that Donald Trump will win.

"Absolutely outrageous that the media would participate in election interference by calling the race before tens of thousands of Iowans even had a chance to vote," communications director Andrew Romeo tells CBS News.

Now that Donald Trump is projected to easily win the Iowa caucus - let's turn to the political intrigue surrounding second place.

Will it be Ron DeSantis or Nikki Haley? And how far behind Trump will they fall? Those answers may give us some indication of their actual chances in this race to become the Republican presidential nominee.

Second place for DeSantis will help vindicate his strategy of visiting all 99 counties in Iowa to drum up support. For Haley, it will cement her standing as the chief alternative to Trump.

We were able to get the first place projection quickly, but second place will take some time.

At this stage it appears like they are neck-and-neck, based off CBS News projections.

Stick with us.

Shortly after the former president was projected to win the Iowa Caucuses, the Make America Great Again group shared a statement going after US President Joe Biden and called on other Republican candidates to drop out of the race.

"Every dollar spent by President Trump's primary losers is a dollar that could be fighting Joe Biden. Once the DC RINOs are finished crying in their cocktails over tonight's results, it's time for Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, and Vivek Ramaswamy to face reality and stop wasting time and resources," the statement from MAGA communications director Alex Pfeiffer reads.

"The people of Iowa sent a clear message tonight: Donald Trump will be the next Republican nominee for President."

Mike Wendling
Reporting from Davenport, Iowa

At a caucus location here in Davenport, I’ve met some first-time caucusgoers who were leaning towards Trump. We're a little bit behind the rest of the state after weather delayed the caucus.

“This is one of the most important elections in our history, “ Roger, a retiree in his 70s, tells me. Although he’s been a registered Republican for decades, this is his first time at a caucus.

Peter O’Toole says border security and abortion are among the most important issues to him and his wife Regan. He’s caucused before but it’s her first time at an event like this.

They’re considering backing either Trump or Vivek Ramaswamy, as they get ready to listen to speeches by candidate representatives including Katherine Bohn - a well-known local TV journalist who’s been a Trump supporter from the start.

Anthony Zurcher
North America correspondent in Des Moines

The music is starting to crank up in volume here at the Trump watch party, with the deep thump of In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins – a Trump rally staple – echoing through the cavernous convention hall.

In the hallway outside the venue, Trump supporters are starting to gather. The doors are scheduled to open around now.

When word first broke that the president was the projected winner of the Iowa caucuses, a smattering of applause could be heard from somewhere behind the stage.

Joe Pike
Reporting from Des Moines, Iowa

Blake Marnell is wearing a blazer depicting "the wall", which Donald Trump has promised to build.

He's from California, so he can't participate in the caucuses. But he said he wanted to observe the voting process and share his support for Trump.

He shrugged off the frigid conditions outside Iowa's State Historical Building in Des Moines.

"I live in San Diego, and I drove here to support him in the caucuses this weekend," he says.

"I'm just here to see the process. I might as well check it out while I'm in Iowa."

This is Donald Trump’s partypublished at 01:48 Greenwich Mean Time 16 January

01:48 GMT 16 January

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent in Des Moines, Iowa

A CBS survey of Iowans entering caucus sites on Monday night helps explain exactly why Trump’s bid for a electoral encore has been successful so far.

About half of Republican caucusgoers consider themselves part of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.

A large majority of participants think Trump was the actual winner of the 2020 presidential election - a number that increases to 90% among Trump supporters.

And this weekend's CBS News poll showed more than 70% of Republicans think the former president would “definitely” defeat Joe Biden in the 2024 general election – substantially more than those who felt that way about Haley or DeSantis.

Typically, defeated presidential candidates fade from memory, never able to shake the taint of the loss.

Trump, however, has managed to convince Republicans – here in Iowa and nationally – that he didn’t lose.

And that is one of the reasons why he is projected to win on Monday night.